Southern Sudanese rebels will on Tuesday meet mediators here in peace talks with the government to discuss how to resolve a dispute over Khartoum’s alleged violation of a ceasefire, a rebel representative said.
The rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) on Monday asked the Kenyan-led mediation team to suspend for a day a third round of peace negotiations, with Khartoum accusing government of having seized the town of Leer in violation of last year’s truce.
”We are going for separate consultations with (chief mediator) General Lazaro Sumbeiywo after which it will become clear how the matter will be resolved,” SPLM/A representative Samson Kwaje told AFP by telephone.
The government denied the SPLM/A claim that it had captured Leer in the Western Upper Nile state, saying the town has been under government control since 1996. Kwaje said government troops were ”some miles” away from Leer, but had on Monday moved into the town and drove out rebel forces.
The third round of Sudan peace talks, aimed at ending two decades of civil war in Africa’s largest country, opened in Nairobi on Thursday, amid complaints by the SPLM/A delegation of ceasefire violations.
Khartoum and the SPLM/A agreed during a first round of talks in July that the mainly animist and Christian south should have a six-year period of self-rule under SPLM/A administration, after which a referendum on self-determination for the south will be held.
During the second round of talks in the Kenyan town of Machakos in November they agreed to extend a truce signed in October and to continue peace negotiations until the end of March. – Sapa-AFP